


No Short Path Home

by for_t2



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Coping With Humour, Depression, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/F, Fear of Abandonment, Late Night Conversations, Love, Mental Health Issues, Post-Canon, Recovery, Suicidal Thoughts, Trauma, they're getting better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 09:54:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30120972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_t2/pseuds/for_t2
Summary: Korra and Asami might've returned from the Spirit World, but they're still recovering, piece by piece
Relationships: Korra/Asami Sato
Comments: 4
Kudos: 63





	No Short Path Home

One night, Asami woke up and the bed next to her was empty. The blankets were crumpled and hitched up towards her, the pillows next to hers were cold, and the room was completely silent. The room was dark, curtains drawn over the late nighttime darkness outside. Dark, silent, and without a trace of Korra.

The bed was empty and, for a moment, Asami knew she had woken up in another nightmare.

For a moment, she panicked.

And after a moment, when she finally managed to breathe, when the pounding of her heart became a little less overwhelming, when she shut her eyes as the wave of nausea passed through her stomach, she noticed that she was too screamingly awake for this to be a dream. She realised that this was just her room, just her apartment, just the night. It wasn’t a nightmare.

But the bed next to her was still empty.

And that made it even worse. The nightmares came regularly, convolutedly simple dreams of her mother screaming while she burned, of her father smiling as turned a mecha tank on her, of Korra grinning as she slipped her arms around a mover star, of her father’s blood bubbling around his skeleton as the city turned to purple, of Korra leaking mercury as she fell, of…

At least, in the end, the nightmares woke her up. She might her blankets drenched with sweat, or the designs she had been working so carefully on smashed to the floor, but she still woke up. And, usually, Korra was there to hold her until she really woke up. Usually.

But tonight, the bed was still empty.

And, for a moment, Asami didn’t think she’d be waking up out of this one.

“Korra?” Her voice came out instinctively, and she hated how much it trembled. How much her fingers clutched the sheets. So, she tried again, a little stronger. “Korra?”

The bed stayed empty.

She didn’t need to think before her body jumped out of the bed. Before she flicked the lights on and grabbed her nightgown. Before her feet moved.

When she hurried out of the bedroom, she only need to quickly glance around the main room once before she had to fight back another wave of nausea at the sight of Korra. Before she was able to breathe out a sigh of relief at the sight that it really was Korra, still there. Still home.

Perched on top of the balcony railing, legs crossed together in a meditation pose, Korra only opened her eyes when she heard the sound of Asami’s footsteps coming towards her. When Asami slid open the glass door. “Hey.”

Asami gave her a smile, a small one but a genuine one, as she trundled over to lean against the railing next to Korra. “Hey.”

Typically unbothered by the cooler air of the night, Korra’s muscles shifted slightly as they slipped out of meditation and as she looked Asami over. “Is everything okay?”

And, just as typically, Asami let herself lose herself in the way those muscles stretched for a second. “Hm? Oh, just a bad dream, that’s all.”

Korra’s eyes went wide. “Ah shit. Spirits! I’m so sorry. I’m sorry. Asamai, I should’ve—"

“It’s fine.” Asami reached out to touch her arm lightly before Korra started stumbling over her words. “It was just a dream. I’m fine.”

Korra gave her a look. “That’s what you say every time.”

It was. “Well, I’m Asami Sato.” The problem was that she didn’t really know what else to say. What else there was that she could say. “If I can convince Cabbage Corp to give me a discount on their latest line of heritage cabbages, I can convince myself of one thing, can’t I?”

One small thing. Korra snorted at the thought. “Have I ever told you you’re kinda hot when you go into negotiator state?”

“Yes.” Korra said it a lot, especially after they had gotten back from the Spirit World and had been faced with the… situation that was Republic City (among other things). “But you can tell me again.”

“Well, you’re hot.” Korra grinned at her. “And since it’s an official Avatar proclamation, you know that it will be true for all of eternity.”

Asami snorted this time. There were some things that she and Korra had done together that she wasn’t sure she wanted the future reincarnations of the Avatar to remember. Or, at least, not while they were still children. “Keep this up, and I’m going to have to build more statues of you.”

Korra laughed, which made Asami smile. And when she didn’t add anything onto the conversation, they lapsed into a comfortable silence. The type of silence that Korra had barely been able to keep during those first few days in the Spirit World until Asami had told her that they were here to relax. To relax together. It was a good type of silence, the type they got when they were both sipping on a cup of tea, or when they leaned against each other, one in mediation the other drawing, or when they collapsed onto the couch after a long day full of factories and emergencies.

It was a silence that Asami eventually had to break, after the bed squirmed its way back into her thoughts and made her shiver. “You don’t usually meditate this late.”

“I…” Korra shifted again, awkwardly, before glancing away from Asami. “I couldn’t sleep.”

Asami reached out to touch her arm again to try and make sure Korra couldn’t turn away from her. “Korra?”

“It’s nothing.” Korra kept shifting, as she always did when she had trouble finding the words. “I’m fine.”

“Korra.”

Korra sighed. “I just…” She stretched her shoulders, tapped her fingers against her legs, and didn’t say anything for a minute. “It’s stupid. It’s really stupid and I don’t know what to do about it.” Before Asami could ask more, Korra threw herself into it. “Sometimes, it’s just nice to be there. To stand on the edge and know that I could if I wanted to. To know that I could and I’m not. That at least I have the choice and it’s my choice and…” Korra’s fists clenched into themselves. “Asami, it scares me.”

Asami bit her tongue. Forced herself not to shake.

“I mean, it’s not like it was after Amon or after the Red Lotus, it’s not anything like that. I wouldn’t actually, I’d never, it’s not… it’s…” Korra stopped for a second. “But sometimes everything will be fine, everything will be great, and then it just comes. Sometimes I just think I see her again.” And then sighed. “Sometimes I don’t know if she’s ever really going to be gone.”

Asami tried to breathe. Focused on breathing. A part of her, a lot of parts of her, wanted to shout, to snap at Korra and tell her that she was being an idiot, that she had no right to do that, that she couldn’t just… leave. And that just made Asami’s voice come out flat. Wrong. “I wish you wouldn’t say things like that.”

“I know.” Korra sounded so genuinely apologetic that Asami braced herself for an apology. “But we promised we’d be open with each other. And I’m not going to stop.”

She managed to make that last sentence sound so defiantly stubborn that another part of Asami chuckled. That another part of Asami forced her to relax, even just slightly. “I know. And thank you.” Even if it was hard. “I don’t think I’m as good at this as you are.”

“Have you ran off to join any illegal underground boxing rings?”

“Not yet.” Despite herself, that part of Asami chuckled again. That part was always louder around Korra. “Do you have any recommendations?”

Korra mock frowned. “I think they shut that one down, but if I hear of any more, I’ll let you know first. Exclusive, Avatar-guaranteed offer.” Then grinned at her own joke.

Asami couldn’t help but laugh.

“I don’t know” Once they slipped back towards silence, Korra took Asami’s hand and traced her fingers across her palm. “I don’t think I’m good at it either, and I don’t think it’s meant to be easy, and… And all I really know is that it’s easier with you. It’s always easier with you.”

Asami slipped her arm around Korra and pressed herself into her, hugging her tightly enough that her sniffle stayed just a sniffle. “I love you, Korra.”

Korra held onto her hands, leaning back into Asami’s hug. Relaxing into Asami. “I love you too, Asami.”

For a minute, Asami just stood there, holding onto Korra, feeling her breath, feeling her heart, feeling her alive and with her. Until she started to realise that it was the middle of the night and her feet were getting cold. “Should I make us some tea?”

Korra held onto Asami for a second longer before her eyes lit up with an idea. “Can I beat you at Pai Sho?”

Asami’s eyes narrowed before she placed a small kiss on Korra’s lips. Before she smirked. “You can try.”

Korra grinned as she jumped down from the railing to follow Asami back into the apartment. The night was a long way from over, everything was a long way from over, but at least it was getting easier. At least they had each other.


End file.
